OGS has a new BLOG and this one FADING AWAY!

The Ohio Genealogical Society has started a new blog - www.ogsblog.org
The OGS Blog will be operated by a group of people (including me) to try to get more postings - a couple a week - the way a blog should operate.
This first OGS blog will be kept active for reference purposes but this will be my last posting as long as the new one continues to work out.
This blog was started about 2009 to give OGS members views of our new library construction. We have now been in our building for six years and still love it. I just don't remember anything about the old building anymore!
We will continue to promote OGS events, new library features, conferences, and genealogy news at our new address. Please visit the new blog and give it a "like". It is designed to better connect with our Facebook and Twitter feeds.
Thanks!
Tom Neel, OGS Library Director

OGS Chapter Management Seminar

I attended the session on Social Media for Chapters put on by Amy Johnson Crow at the Ohio Genealogical Society Chapter Management Seminar in Zanesville today. She said that a group should start with a blog to promote itself. They are a little more stable as far as controlling them and keeping the contents in order, and other social media platforms like Facebook and Twitter can feed off them. The key is to maintain the blog with regular posts - once or twice per week at a minimum. The screen shot here says "If you can't maintain it, don't do it!" Blogs can tell about chapter events, new publications, "fun records", queries and anything related to your group and mission. One must promote their organization first. Be watchful about how many stories you are posting from other sources. They might be entertaining but they are not about your group. Every post needs an image. "We are a visual society," said Crow, and "posts with images are more likely to get shared." One cannot even share text-only posts in some of the image social media venues. She recommended using Twitter hash tags in blog posts - #genealogy - so that those users pick it up. Genealogy groups often do not have the personnel and time to promote themselves through every type of social media out there today. They need to choose a couple types and do them justice. Blogs and Facebook are the two that our target age group uses. Think about a blog for your OGS Chapter or surname research group. Let's see if I can take her good advice and post a little more about all the fine activities at the Ohio Genealogical Society on this blog! And remember the "social" aspect of social media. This should be a conversation with likes, comments, and the number of shares being the measure of a blog's success. Good suggestions, Amy!